https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-23/large-methane-plumes-above-chevron-gorgon-project-investigation/
Independent satellite monitoring has detected massive plumes of methane emerging from one of Australia's largest oil and gas complexes.
The persistent clouds above Chevron's Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island off Western Australia's Pilbara coast were picked up by five consecutive passes of the Tanager-1 satellite since November last year.
The most recent, in late August, recorded an average emission rate of about 7.8 tonnes of methane an hour.
That is the equivalent of burning more than 110,000 kilograms of coal within a span of 60 minutes, calculated using an online tool by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
A satellite image of a gas plan with a heat map ranging from deep red to light blue over the centre of the facility.
Satellite imagery of the alert triggering methane emissions, captured in August. (Supplied: Carbon Mapper)
The repeated detections, the latest far exceeding a "super emitter" event under US EPA guidelines, prompted a United Nations (UN) warning to Chevron.
According to the UN, methane is responsible for about 25 per cent of global warming and is a greenhouse gas 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.
Chevron confirmed it had received the alert and was working with the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) to address it.
However, a UNEP spokesperson told the ABC it had not received formal feedback from Chevron or the Australian government, and would update its publicly available data when it had.
Chevron was similarly notified about methane emissions at Gorgon in July last year.
In a statement, Chevron said satellite monitoring came with "a wide range of uncertainty".
"We are engaging with the UNEP, and we are seeking further clarity on their data," a company spokesperson said.